As the site grows, we continue to look for ways to make improvements based on what we have learned so far. For the most part, we like the way things are going. We do, however, want the site to be more civil so more people will feel comfortable contributing their points of view.
We felt this was a good time to formalize the iBrattleboro experience a bit, and attempt an official policy for the site.
Lise and I wrote a draft on our own, then sought the advice of people who use the site often and people who don't. They gave us excellent feedback.
Taking that feedback, we did another draft which we present here to you for final discussion.
Does this seem fair? Is anything unclear? Did we miss anything?
Your input is appreciated.
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iBrattleboro.com Terms And Conditions - DRAFT
iBrattleboro.com is a community news and information site open to anyone in the community who wants to participate. In order to make sure that we provide a welcoming atmosphere to our users (and neighbors), we require that all users who submit words and pictures to the site abide by the following terms and conditions:
Do not plagiarize
iBrattleboro encourages original writing and photos. Do not submit others work as your own. Please attribute all information you get from other sources, including people, tv shows, websites, blogs, or traditional publications. If you need help with an attribution, contact us at info@ibrattleboro.com.
Respect copyrights
If you want to tell others about an article found elsewhere on the web, please provide a link rather than copying and pasting the entire article. You may not republish someone else's copyrighted material on iBrattleboro without permission of the copyright holder.
To link to an article, use the following code in your post, <a href="website_address">your link text</a> and choose HTML as posting method, or just paste in the url.
Here's an example using HTML code: <a href="http://www.ibrattleboro.com/stats.php">iBrattleboro Stats</a>.
Disclosures
If you have a personal or business relationship with the subject of an article upon which you are writing, please mention it so readers will know. For example, the Estey Organ Museum gets written up on iBrattelboro because Chris is the president, and we state this in the FAQ as well as here.
Write with civility and respect.
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An important purpose of iBrattleboro is to provide all users with a forum for information-sharing, discussion and debate in a respectful and friendly atmosphere. Personal attacks and mean-spirited postings discourage and utimately kill useful communication. Submissions that appear to be primarily for the purpose of defamation, libel, or maligning and impugning others may be deleted. iBrattleboro is concerned with building community. Community is built on goodwill, respect and trust.
Disagreement need not be synonymous with anger, bitterness, loathing, intolerance or other non-productive negativity. Discussion is encouraged; fighting is not.
Users who are found to repeatedly violate minimal standards of respect and decorum may, following two warnings, be suspended or banned from the site.
Agree To Editing
By submitting a story to iBrattleboro, you agree to allow possible editing of your story for capitalization, spelling, punctuation, and/or length. Your story will never be edited as to content or substance.
We cannot edit comments; they are all or nothing.
With regard to categories, when submitting a story you may suggest a category. However iBratteboro reserves the right to recategorize it more appropriately.
Please leave site policing to the moderators.
It’s not necessary for site users to police each other’s comments. If you would like to report a possible violation of site policy, please email the site at alert@ibrattleboro.com and refer us to the offending url/comment.
Disclaimers:
Registering as a user on iBrattleboro.com constitutes acceptance of this site’s policies and agreement to abide by the terms and conditions of the site.
iBrattleboro.com is not responsible for stories and comments posted on this site. Information posted on the site is the responsibility of the individual posters and not iBrattleboro.com.
iBrattleboro reserves the right to refuse publication of any story or comment, for any reason.
iBrattleboro reserves the right to ban or suspend any user at any time, with or without warning, for activities that put the site at risk.
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